By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

ORONO – The University of Maine hockey team has enjoyed great success and crushing failure at the FleetCenter.

Maine captured the Hockey East Championship in Boston last March and beat Boston College in a Frozen Four semifinal game, but the Black Bears then lost a 1-0 heartbreaker to Denver in the National Championship.

“We’re the defending champions for Hockey East,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead. “So I think the guys have good memories there, but there’s also, obviously, bad memories of the Denver game. Our guys have had a lot of success down there, last year in particular. I think that will be a positive going back there.”

The Black Bears are 7-5 in Hockey East games at the FleetCenter, three of those losses came in the championship game. Maine, ranked fourth in Hockey East, meets the top-seeded Eagles in a 5 p.m. rematch of last year’s Frozen Four semifinal game. The Black Bears won that showdown 2-1 thanks in large part to goaltender Jimmy Howard’s 40 saves.

“Obviously, it was a disappointment not beating Denver, but I think the positives were winning two games in the Hockey East tournament and beating BC there,” said Whitehead. “Hopefully, the guys will be able to keep that perspective.”

The Black Bears are trying to keep the positive vibes going these days. After an inconsistent regular season, Maine hopes it has hit its stride in the post season. The Black Bears had two solid performances in 7-2 and 5-1 wins over UMass-Lowell in last weekend’s quarterfinals.

“We had a solid weekend,” said forward Michel Leveille. “It has to give us a little momentum going into the semifinals.”

Maine (20-11-7) was ranked 12th in both the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine and the USCHO/CSTV polls, while the Eagles (23-6-7) are ranked fourth in the same polls. BC went 2-0-1 against UMaine this season, including a 4-3 win and 2-2 tie at Chestnut Hill in early March with the Hockey East top ranking at stake.

“Since December, we’ve been playing way better than we played the first half of the season,” said Leveille. “We haven’t had many losses the second half of the season.”

Maine has lost three times in its last 18 games, and a Hockey East title would secure the Black Bears’ NCAA Tournament hopes.

“It’s been a long hard road this year,” said Whitehead. “We knew it would be as coaches. Maybe the players didn’t realize it. They’ve worked hard to get here. I’m real happy for them to have the opportunity.”

One key to Maine’s success against Lowell last weekend was its six power-play goals. That was after netting just one in 17 previous tries over four games, including two games against BC.

“I think we’re just capitalizing on our chances,” said forward Keenan Hopson. “We’re getting better passes, stick-to-stick, and getting into the corner when it’s dumped in.”

Leveille says the Black Bears have been able to crowd the goaltender and slip shots through traffic in front.

“We’re getting a lot of guys in front of the net and we’re getting the goalies out of the way,” said Leveille. “That’s what we’ve got to do. Everytime you get to another level, the goalies are getting better and better.”

Whitehead says the Black Bears have tried mixing up the lineup on the power play and started to build some confidence.

Besides scoring 12 goals against the Rivers Hawks, Maine played well on defense and received stellar work from Howard in net. The Black Bears made a living off winning one-goal games last year, going 15-5. That all-around game is what UMaine is focusing on for the FleetCenter.